UMULATI VE  experience  since  the 
Prohibition  Act  was  written  into 
the  fundamental  law  of  the  land 
as  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  to 
the  United  States  Constitution, 
has  proved  that  the  tremendous 
benefits  to  the  nation,  to  the  community, 
and  to  the  individual  are  to-day  increasing 
in  all  expected  and  many  unexpected  ways. 

A nation-wide  survey  of  the  effects  in 
their  economic,  social,  and  moral  aspects 
which  have  followed  the  operation  of  na- 
tional prohibition  yields  constantly  grow- 
ing evidence  of  improving  conditions  in 
business,  in  politics,  in  family  life,  with 
labor,  with  employer,  and  with  the  coun- 
try as  a whole.  Savings  bank  investors 
have  more  than  doubled  in  number  since 
1919;  the  saloon  is  no  longer  a political 
power  in  the  community:  more  homes  are 
being  built;  more  employees  are  saving 
money  and  using  it  to  economic  advantage; 

1 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


real  estate  values  are  helped;  constructive 
business  is  supplanting  the  destructive  sa- 
loon, and  the  result  of  the  entire  process 
is  the  enhancement  of  national  prosperity 
and  happiness.  This  but  partially  tabulates 
the  findings  throughout  the  United  States. 

Results  of  The  Christian  Science  Monitor 
Survey 

FI  chronicling  almost  daily  the  mounting 
advantages  which  have  come  with  pro- 
hibition, The  Christian  Science  Monitor 
has  interviewed  heads  of  organizations  rep- 
resenting fully  14,000,000  Americans, 
compassing  all  sections  of  the  United 
States.  The  results  of  these  extensive  in- 
quiries are  significant  and  encouraging. 
The  replies  convincingly  refute  the  propa- 
ganda of  the  liquor  interests  that  the  dry 
sentiment  is  waning  or  is  about  to  collapse, 
and  show  that  in  reality  prohibition  and 
the  growing  popular  appreciation  of  its 
benefits  were  never  closer  to  the  people  than 
right  now.  The  interviews  also  show 
that  the  influential  voting  citizen,  who  rep- 
resents the  best  element  in  the  American 
public,  believes  that  prohibition  is  an  im- 
portant step  in  the  right  direction,  and  is 
2 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


determined  not  to  risk  losing  its  benefits 
by  allowing  adulterated  or  modified  pro- 
hibition to  be  put  over  by  any  subterfuge 
of  the  organized  wets. 

What  Herbert  Hoover  Says 

Herbert  hoover.  United  states 

Secretary  of  Commerce,  who  is  ad- 
mittedly in  a position  of  vantage  to  esti- 
mate accurately  the  economic  value  of 
prohibition,  finds  that  the  operation  of 
the  Volstead  Act  has  already  been  preemi- 
nently successful.  He  said  recently  to  a 
representative  of  The  Christian  Science 
Monitor:—- 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  economic 
benefits  of  prohibition.  I think  that  increased 
temperance  over  the  land  is  responsible  for 
the  enormously  increased  efficiency  in  produc- 
tion, which  statistics  gathered  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  Commerce  show  to  have  followed 
the  passage  of  the  law. 

Mr.  Hoover  pointed  out  that  higher  pro- 
ductivity, better  movement  of  commod- 
ities, full  employment,  higher  wages, 
greatly  increased  savings,  and  large  addi- 
tions to  home  building  have  marked  all  of 
the  prohibition  years. 

3 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


Another  Expert's  View 

Dr.  THOMAS  NIXON  CARVER,  na- 
tionally known  economist,  and  pro- 
fessor at  Harvard  University,  declares  that 
national  prohibition  gives  the  people  of 
the  United  States  untold  economic  advan- 
tage over  rival  countries.  He  characterizes 
the  use  of  intoxicating  drink  by  any  nation 
as  a tremendous  waste  and  warns  that 
no  land  to-day  can  maintain  its  position 
in  the  progress  of  competing  nations  and 
be  held  back  by  the  drag  of  intemperance. 
In  a study  which  he  has  completed  for  the 
Encyclopedia  Britannica,  he  says  in  part: — • 

So  long  as  all  the  rival  nations  arc  wast- 
ing resources  and  man-power  in  drink  there 
may  be  no  differential  advantage  in  favor  of 
any  one  or  against  any  of  the  others;  but 
when  one  nation,  such  as  the  United  States, 
makes  a definite  advance  in  this  form  of  econ- 
omy, unless  it  indulges  in  some  folly  that  will 
neutralize  the  advantage  thus  gained,  there  is 
no  reason  to  doubt  it  will  gain  on  all  others, 
year  by  year,  decade  by  decade,  and  century  by 
century,  and  eventually  dominate  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  world.  They  who  refuse  to  take 
this  great  step  forward  in  the  economy  of 
human  resources,  whether  they  understand  it 
or  not,  are  definitely  choosing  to  occupy  a 
secondary  position  in  the  civilized  world. 

4 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


The  Violator  Is  the  Failure,  Not  Prohibi- 
tion, Says  Henry  Ford 

The  words  of  Henry  Ford,  in  whose 
factories  drinking  of  intoxicants  in 
any  form  brings  peremptory  dismissal, 
carry  increasing  conviction  of  the  success 
of  the  Eighteenth  Amendment.  The  fol- 
lowing is  from  ”Mr.  Ford's  Page”  in  the 
Dearborn  Independent: — 

The  fact  that  a law  is  violated  does  not 
mean  that  that  law  is  bad.  Burglars  consider 
that  laws  against  house-breaking  should 
never  have  been  framed,  gunmen  are  of  the 
opinion  that  the  statute  which  makes  it  an 
offense  for  them  to  take  the  lives  of  their 
fellow  men  is  all  wrong,  and  thugs  in  general 
are  quite  certain  that  their  liberties  are  un- 
necessarily curtailed  by  legislation  of  any 
kind.  Yet  no  one  would  assert  that  the  burg- 
lar, the  gunmen,  and  the  thug  are  right.  . . . 

After  its  five  years  of  trial,  prohibition  is 
not  a failure.  It  is  the  people  who  have  neg- 
lected to  correspond  with  it  who  are  the  fail- 
ures. If  it  took  Christianity  hundreds  of 
years  to  obtain  a footing,  why  should  any- 
one consider  five  years  sufficient  for  a try-out 
of  the  greatest  reform  since  the  introduction 
of  Christianity  itself?  The  good  that  has  al- 
ready come  from  it  infinitely  outweighs  the 
evils,  and  the  evils  that  are  do  not  arise  from 
prohibition  but  the  failure  to  practice  it. 

5 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


A Foreigner's  Estimate  of  Prohibition 

WILLIAM  PAXTON,  Scottish  writer 
and  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Geograph- 
ical Society,  concludes  his  recently  pub- 
lished book,  "The  Truth  About  Prohibi- 
tion," with  the  following  unqualified 
endorsement: — 

I believe  that  prohibition  in  the  United 
States,  in  spite  of  the  law-breakers,  and  the 
wealthy  and  unscrupulous  people  who  en- 
courage law-breaking,  is  one  of  the  most 
beneficial  measures  in  the  history  of  govern- 
ment; and  I am  confident  that,  with  passing 
years  and  the  rearing  of  a race  that  has  never 
seen  a saloon,  America  will  give  a lead  to  the 
whole  world  in  solving  one  of  the  most  difii- 
cult  problems  of  modern  times. 

Millions  of  Dollars  Saved  Yearly 
vIONG  the  many  accomplishments 


which  the  report  of  the  subcom- 
mittee on  the  alcoholic  liquor  traffic  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  credits  to  prohi- 
bition is  the  fact  that  it  "had  enabled  chari- 
table organizations  to  take  $74,000,000 
per  year  from  funds  formerly  used  to  sup- 
port cases  of  drink-caused  poverty,  and 
use  this  money  in  constructive  welfare 
work.”  The  report  also  declares  that  "La- 


6 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


bor  is  becoming  a capitalist,”  and  explains 
that  "this  is  not  alone  through  the  many 
great  labor  banks  which  are  to-day  play- 
ing a prominent  part  in  financing  indus- 
try, but  also  through  individual  purchases 
of  corporation  stock  by  employees,  many 
of  whom  under  the  license  system  had  no 
marginal  funds  to  invest  in  anything.” 
Likewise  does  the  House  committee  find 
that  "the  increase  in  the  number  of  con- 
tracts for  residential  buildings  has  been 
record-breaking  since  the  Eighteenth 
Amendment  went  into  effect,”  and  that 
"the  higher  standards  of  living  developed 
since  prohibition  have  favorably  affected 
both  manufacture  and  distribution.” 

Signs  of  the  Times 
HE  1925  International  Convention  of 


JL  the  World  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union,  representing  750,000 
women  in  fifty-one  different  countries, 
held  in  Edinburgh,  stands  as  a prophetic 
indication  of  the  cumulative  sentiment  in 
favor  of  prohibition  in  all  nations.  The 
reports  from  the  fifty-one  countries  com- 
prised the  most  optimistic  signs  of  a defi- 
nite trend  toward  dry  legislation.  Reso- 


7 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


lutions  adopted  at  the  close  of  the  conven- 
tion based  a forward-looking  program  on 
the  ground  that  world  democracy,  world 
peace,  world  purity,  and  world  patriotism 
demand  the  world-wide  extinction  of  the 
liquor  traffic.  Of  the  success  of  prohibition 
in  the  United  States  Miss  Anna  Adams 
Gordon,  president  of  the  world  organiza- 
tion and  leader  of  the  American  delegation, 
said  in  part: — 

Prohibition  has  strengthened  the  moral, 
physical,  financial,  and  spiritual  fiber  of  our 
national  life.  Drinking  has  been  reduced  be- 
tween 70  and  80  per  cent.  For  the  last  three 
or  four  years  the  New  York  City  Salvation 
Army  has  had  to  give  up  its  annual 
"Boozers"  Day  because  there  were  not 
enough  drunks  on  the  street  to  make  the 
gathering  a success. 

Since  the  enactment  of  the  Eighteenth 
Amendment  arrests  for  drunkenness  have  been 
reduced  more  than  one-half.  Alcoholic  in- 
sanity has  been  reduced  66  per  cent  annually. 
Inmates  of  county  jails  have  been  lessened 
200,000  per  year.  Mortality  rates  have  been 
lowered  1,000,000  over  a period  of  three 
years.  Homes  are  happier  and  children  are 
healthier:  streets  are  safer  for  the  boys  and 
girls;  thousands  of  children  who  once  would 
have  supported  drinking  are  now  high  school 
and  college  students. 


8 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


“General  Conditions  Steadily  Improving” 

Exposing  the  fallacy  using  statistics 
from  isolated  groups  in  a vain  attempt 
to  build  up  a case  against  prohibition.  Dr. 
George  O’Hanlon,  superintendent  of  the 
Bellevue  and  allied  hospitals  in  New  York 
City,  declares  in  a statement  to  The  Chris- 
tian Science  Monitor  that  ’’general  condi- 
tions, despite  hospital  tabulations  on  al- 
coholic admissions  used  by  wets  to  dis- 
credit prohibition,  are  steadily  improving.” 

Dr.  O’Hanlon  points  out  that  from  the 
wide  experience  he  has  had  with  cases  of 
chronic  alcoholism,  he  can  see  such  cases 
virtually  disappearing  under  the  beneficial 
influence  of  national  prohibition.  He 
shows  that  hospital  statistics  represent  only 
a segregated  and  unrepresentative  minority 
and  when  distorted  are  not  a reliable  indi- 
cation of  the  success  of  the  Eighteenth 
Amendment.  He  adds: — 

Prohibition  not  only  has  reduced  the  num- 
ber of  patients  sent  to  Bellevue  Hospital  for 
treatment  for  insanity  caused  by  alcoholism, 
notwithstanding  an  upward  turn  in  1922, 
but  also  it  has  brought  a marked  change  in 
the  seriousness  of  most  of  the  cases.  We  find 
that  a large  number  of  cases  now  are  minor 
9 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


ones,  involving  treatment  for  a period  of 
from  a few  days  to  a few  weeks.  They  are 
mostly  persons  who  have  developed  mental 
trouble  as  a result  of  drinking  suddenly  a 
great  quantity  of  the  stuff  that  at  present 
passes  for  liquor.  They  are  taken  to  the  hos- 
pital for  a few  days  or  weeks,  and  then  many 
of  them,  it  has  been  reported  to  me,  are  all 
right  again.  That  is  bad  enough,  but  it  is 
vastly  different  from  having  these  people  go 
the  way  they  formerly  did — to  an  asylum  for 
a few  years  or  permanently. 

Suppose,  for  instance,  that  our  hospital 
figures  happen  to  indicate  that  during  certain 
years  since  the  Federal  prohibition  law  be- 
came effective,  first  as  a war-time  measure 
when  the  United  States  troops  were  return- 
ing from  overseas  in  1919,  and  continued  in 
January,  1920,  as  a permanent  measure 
through  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  to  the 
Constitution — suppose,  I say,  that  our  fig- 
ures show  increased  admissions  of  alcoholic 
cases  in  some  years  since  1919.  That  offers 
no  ground  upon  which  to  base  arguments 
against  prohibition. 

"Most  Trifling  Percentage” 

What  if  Bellevue  and  its  allied  hospitals 
did  admit  more  than  6000  such  cases  in 
1924?  What,  after  all,  are  6000  persons, 
proportionately  considered  in  these  circum- 
stances, as  compared  to  New  York  City’s 
population  of  about  6,000,000?  A most 
trifiing  percentage,  after  all. 

10 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


President  Coolidge  on  Law  Observance 

IN  his  inaugural  address  of  March  4, 
1925,  President  Coolidge  especially  em- 
phasized the  demand  and  obligation  which 
rests  upon  every  citizen  to  observe  the  laws 
of  the  land.  He  made  clear  his  opinion  that 
those  who  desire  to  have  their  own  rights 
respected  must  set  the  example  of  law  obe- 
dience to  others.  He  says  further: — 

In  a republic  the  first  rule  for  the  guid- 
ance of  the  citizen  is  obedience  to  law.  Under 
a despotism  the  law  may  be  imposed  upon 
the  subject.  He  has  no  voice  in  its  making, 
no  influence  in  its  administration,  it  does 
not  represent  him.  Under  a free  government 
the  citizen  makes  his  own  laws,  chooses  his 
own  administrators,  which  do  represent  him. 

Those  who  want  their  rights  respected 
under  the  Constitution  and  the  law  ought  to 
set  the  example  themselves  of  observing  the 
Constitution  and  the  laws.  While  there  may 
be  those  of  high  intelligence  who  violate  the 
law  at  times,  the  barbarian  and  the  defective 
always  violate  it.  Those  who  disregard  the 
rules  of  society  are  not  exhibiting  a superior 
intelligence,  are  not  promoting  freedom  and 
independence,  are  not  following  the  path  of 
civilization,  but  are  displaying  the  traits  of 
ignorance,  of  servitude,  of  savagery,  and 
treading  the  way  that  leads  back  to  the 
jungle. 


11 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


A Changed  Opinion 

After  saying,  "I  am  one  of  those  who 
L were  opposed  to  prohibition,”  Horace 
D.  Taft,  headmaster  of  Taft  School,  Wa- 
tertown, Connecticut,  and  brother  of  Wil- 
liam H.  Taft,  Chief  Justice  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  in  a recent  state- 
ment concludes; — 

I believe  that  any  fair-minded  man,  be  he 
wet  or  dry,  who  will  study  the  whole  ques- 
tion, will  come  to  the  conclusion  that  we 
might  as  well  try  to  reverse  the  direction  of 
the  rapids  at  Niagara  as  to  reverse  the  delib- 
erate verdict  of  the  American  people  on  this 
question.  Enormous  good  has  followed  the 
adoption  of  prohibition. 

Prohibition  Backing  Increasing 

Recognizing  more  and  more  the 
accumulating  advantages  which  na- 
tional prohibition  is  bringing  to  the  United 
States,  the  American  public  is  preponder- 
ately  and  unequivocably  backing  the 
Eighteenth  Amendment.  An  important 
contribution  to  the  proof  of  this  observa- 
tion is  contained  in  the  great  volume  of 
letters  which  the  Manufacturers  Record  re- 
ceived in  its  second  nation-wide  survey  of 
opinion  on  prohibition. 

12 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


Leading  manufacturers,  bankers,  mer- 
chants, railway  presidents,  university  pro- 
fessors, lawyers — men  who  are  leaders  in 
the  industrial  and  professional  life  of  the 
nation — joined  in  emphatically  expressing 
their  conviction  of  the  increasing  merits  of 
prohibition.  Says  the  Manufacturers 
Record : — 

We  confess  that  the  replies  as  a whole 
have  surprised  us.  We  thought  that  possi- 
bly here  and  there  some  men  might  have 
changed  their  opinion,  but  the  overwhelm- 
ing testimony  is  in  favor  of  prohibition  and 
a more  drastic  enforcement  of  these  laws. 

Up  to  the  moment  that  this  editorial  is 
written  only  two  replies  out  of  a hundred 
or  more  had  been  received  advocating  mod- 
eration of  the  law:  all  others  are  strongly 
in  favor  of  prohibition,  giving  their  reasons 
therefor,  and  saying  that  they  had  seen  no 
reason  for  changing  their  previously  ex- 
pressed view  in  favor  of  prohibition. 

This  is  far  and  away,  in  our  opinion, 
the  most  important  symposium  which  has 
ever  been  published  on  the  prohibition 
question.  It  will  inevitably  have  a world- 
wide effect,  for  the  nations  of  the  world 
are  studying  the  prohibition  question  as 
they  never  did  before.  The  combined 
liquor  interests  of  the  world  are  trying  to 
break  down  prohibition  in  America,  using 
their  utmost  power  to  influence  public  opin- 
ion for  this  purpose. 

13 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


Record  Proves  Its  Case 

An  interesting  development  emphasizing 
. still  further  the  depth  and  sincerity  of 
prohibition  sentiment  in  the  United  States 
followed  the  publication  of  results  of  the 
Manufacturers  Record’s  undertaking.  The 
imputation  was  made  in  certain  quarters 
that  the  authors  of  the  letters  were  insin- 
cere and  were  not  personally  abstainers. 
Immediately  the  editors  of  the  magazine 
recovered  the  same  ground,  and  confirmed 
every  letter. 

"Not  only  have  the  replies  to  the  slander 
that  these  men  were  themselves  violating 
the  law  shown  a remarkable  unanimity  of 
opinion  in  regard  to  the  necessity  of  every- 
one obeying  the  law,  but  they  further  stress 
with  unusual  emphasis  the  great  benefits 
derived  under  prohibition,  from  the  eco- 
nomic as  well  as  from  the  moral  stand- 
point, even  in  the  face  of  inadequate  law 
enforcement,”  the  editors  of  the  Record 
declared. 

"These  letters  have  come  from  men 
whose  standing  in  the  professional  and 
business  world  no  one  can  question;  they 
emphasize  more  forcibly  than  has  ever 
14 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


been  done  before,  because  such  an  oppor- 
tunity was  never  before  presented,  their 
own  strict  obedience  to  the  prohibition 
laws.” 

Dr.  Henry  Louis  Smith,  president  of 
Washington  and  Lee  University,  wrote  as 
follows  in  his  reply : — 

I am  now  and  have  been  all  my  life  a 
voluntary,  rigid,  and  enthusiastic  teetotaler. 

My  hearty  approbation  of  prohibition  and 
my  sincere  belief  in  the  magnificent  experi- 
ment undertaken  by  the  moral  forces  of 
American  civilization  are  convictions  and 
attitudes  entirely  independent  of  my  per- 
sonal habits  in  this  respect.  To  my  mind 
the  most  forceful  advocate  of  prohibition  is 
the  hopeless  and  helpless  inebriate  who  in- 
sists on  voting  for  prohibition  that  his 
fellow  citizens  of  like  weakness  may  not 
fall  into  the  pit  which  has  engulfed  him. 

Continuance  of  national  prohibition 
without  modification  of  the  present  stat- 
utes is  urged  by  Elbert  H.  Gary,  chair- 
man of  the  United  States  Steel  Corpora- 
tion. He  says:— 

Since  giving  you  an  opinion  which  was 
published  about  three  years  ago,  I have  not 
changed  nor  modified  my  views  in  regard  to 
prohibition.  I am  more  and  more  satisfied 
that  the  prohibition  legislation  should  have 
15 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  PROHIBITION 


been  passed  and  continued  without  amend- 
ment, and  that  it  should  be  more  rigidly 
imposed.  I am  also  satisfied  from  experience 
it  is  a good  thing  for  this  country. 


In  conclusion  several  salient  facts  stand 
out.  The  country  has  voted  prepon- 
derately  dry,  and  the  constantly  increas- 
ing benefits  of  prohibition  are  deepening 
this  conviction.  The  press  of  the  nation 
is  prcponderately  dry.  Congress  is  pre- 
ponderately  dry.  The  full  strength  of  the 
dry  forces  of  the  United  States  must  re- 
main mobilized,  however,  to  combat  the 
last-stand  efforts  of  the  minority  of  organ- 
ized wets  to  bring  back  liquor.  Adequate 
enforcement  so  that  the  full  measure  of 
benefit  which  accompanies  prohibition 
may  be  realized  is  the  pressing  need,  and 
demands  the  support  of  every  law-abiding 
citizen. 


Published  by 

The  Christian  Science  Publishing  Society 
Back  Bay  Station 
Boston,  Massachusetts,  U.  S.  A, 


16 


V 


v: 


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[Printed  in  U.  S.  A.] 


